Are there NPCs by the Sexy God Trainer? I didn't find any while I was wandering around there. Just a bunch of apes.

Yep, 2 named fighters, 2 named archers, named carpenter, named armorer, 2 named performers that I've seen so far. With the usual 1-3 drek. Usually 1 named up at any time at least, most often Mei the Blade. They all spawn in the thrall group right around the Derketo trainer. Otherwise it's various apes and chickens, with lizard-rhinos and spiders south across the water.

Mandella: I approve of the firepit Grab yourself an extra thrall or two out of the box at the House of Pain (yeah, Iím generous with stuff what ainít mine...)

Now Iím wondering if itís possible to build a treehouse around one of the big permanent trees....

My wife built that House of Pain, and the Box o' Slaves is a public service. Grab anything you like from there.

Also, if there's anything you want me to watch for on my slaving runs of the Black Galleon, just lemme know. I usually only take named slaves, now that the HoP has named/grade-3 thralls on all stations, but I can capture anything I come across if you need one.

Mandella: I approve of the firepit Grab yourself an extra thrall or two out of the box at the House of Pain (yeah, Iím generous with stuff what ainít mine...)

Now Iím wondering if itís possible to build a treehouse around one of the big permanent trees....

My wife built that House of Pain, and the Box o' Slaves is a public service. Grab anything you like from there.

Also, if there's anything you want me to watch for on my slaving runs of the Black Galleon, just lemme know. I usually only take named slaves, now that the HoP has named/grade-3 thralls on all stations, but I can capture anything I come across if you need one.

I've got named for all my stations, I swing by every now and then looking for named entertainers for the Robot Pirate Island dance hall but that's really all i'm looking for.

The "Treehouse of Horrors" is coming along nicely. It's got a wheel of pain, now it just needs a BBQ and some comfy lawn furniture. And dancers.

I've got named for all my stations, I swing by every now and then looking for named entertainers for the Robot Pirate Island dance hall but that's really all i'm looking for.

If you go near my bedroll in BlackDong (bedroll with 3 chests next to it), I left an extra Imiu of Derkheto there.

For Black Dong, I upgraded the smelters and armorers, and left some extra high priests and others in the crafting area out front if anyone needs.

If anyone sees any named carpenters or tanners I could get I'd appreciate it, I can't seem to find those at all after a week at the boat and swamp. Rayne, Sigyn, Valenso, and Inigo just don't like spawning for me.

Pretty sure it's just my crappy internet connection (which gets even more crappy in the summertime) but is anybody else having major lag and connection issues? Especially the find a server screen -- that one can take minutes to populate, and yes I have Bat Country favorited.

I found my way over to Hotel Rattran while trying to find the Derketo trainer. I'm pretty much due west from there, on an island in that river.

Is the general idea with those massive NPC settlements to just bring a giant brute squad of thralls with you so you don't have to fight them 5v1?

Similarly, does equipping a thrall with a truncheon to have them help knock out other NPCs not work? I gave that whirl last night (I have one fighter thrall but haven't successfully captured any more because they're always too tough for me to knock out) and my thrall just ran around helplessly while I got my ass kicked by a dude with a hammer. My current thinking is to just gear up on heavy armor now that I've figured out where the iron is but curious if there are any other tricks.

"Nice attempted blast about my "drinking". I do enjoy a nice cuppa, but that is because I am a bon vivant of gregarious nature and cheery disposition." - Ab

The best use I've found for thralls that follow is the bearers hauling 500 extra stone around while gathering materials. Otherwise, their combat AI is too bad to be considered for anything other than defense, and defense only by sheer weight of numbers. I'd never try to drag thralls along for offensive combat duty.

As for taking on the giant hitpoint sponge mobs that are the bosses, best tactics we've found so far have been to kite them with Set snake arrows and/or run them around until they get stuck on some world geometry and poke the fuck out of them before kiting them with more arrows and the occasional asspoke to keep them interested. It's hella fun to pull the dragons from the unnamed city to the oasis outside Muriela's Hope and have them fight with the giant boss rhino while whittling them down with arrows and the aforementioned ass pokes.

Only problem with using the thralls to help haul is that they aren't real nimble footed. Lost one of my early haulers off a stair, although I did manage to loot that sweet medieval style backpack off his crumpled body.

Of course, now the thrall I was storing it on refuses to let me back into his inventory, or pay any attention to me at all now. I'm told it's a known bug from having thralls before you join a clan.

In other news, might not be on much (I know, what shall you all do?) as I managed to burn out an amplifier in my network leaving me with only high latency satellite for the next week or so until I can get some replacement parts in.

Been having fun building roads and bridges connecting the various settlements though, which I can mostly safely do while laggy as hell.

The bosses are right now pretty tedious, yeah. I just messed around with the giant spider in the desert and it couldn't really kill me unless I stopped trying but it would have taken me about an hour + to whittle it down to death.

I've been playing on a server with my RL friends. We added 2 mods - LT's Compass and Minimap (little minimap with compass directions and coordinates on it) and Pickup+ (allows you to pickup a piece you've created like a crafting station or wall) and put it in your inventory without dismantling it, so you can move all your crafting stations without having to rebuild them. I've looked and the only one I saw that had map markers for your clan mates was Pippi User and Server Management and they disabled the map options so we don't use it.

Our second Purge hit the server last night. One of my buddies had decided to build a base out of sandstone right next to the obelisk at the Mounds of the Dead. That was the place the purge picked and it was intense. Waves of 2 groups of 4-5 naked T3 Cimmerians (archers and fighters) coming at the building with hate in their hearts. They weren't normal T3's either, as they could pop me with 2-3 hits (I'm level 57 with over 400 hp in heavy armor). It took a concerted effort of 4 of us with gaseous orbs (wearing a sandstorm mask protects you from the gas) whittling them down. I came in late and still saw something like 5 waves and died 3 times. I don't know how the purge picks its location but if it's in the right place it can be devastating. His building had luckily only been built two days prior which meant he didn't have hardly any thralls protecting it and he chose a bad spot.

I've actually deliberately built my manor down on the Newbie River in Dong Country. I'm hoping all the savages go north to hit the more populated forts, since my little place wouldn't hold up to any kind of concerted assault.

That one looks like the best one I've seen and we've looked at many. Death/rez and obelisks are the only fast travel, though there are some portals at the Temple of Frost that look like they are either going to be travel portals or portals to dungeons that haven't been added to the game yet.

I'm having problems with combat on Bat Country. I can craft, gather and build fine but all the animals and npc's seem to be standing still and don't react when I attack until they either disappear or I can't see them attacking me back.